Here is my 52 Series 62 Coupe. Picked it up on Dec 12th and trailered it back to NJ. It's currently the new project for my advanced students in my auto mechanics cl***es. She is 99% complete with no rot to be found and only surface rust to deal with. The chrome needs to be redone but Ill deal with the grill and small trim first and sport the bumpers as is for a while. Its got new brakes, shocks, tires, wheels, fuel tank was redone along with the radiator and some engine parts. Unfortunately the engine was out of it and in pieces when I got it, so I believe a newer fuel injected plant will find its way in there sooner than later, but nothing will get hacked so I can bring it back to original down the road if I desire. I also plan to paint it something similar to _charles_'s '53 Coupe, but I'll probably do the interior differently. I have most of my pics on my FQuick page : http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewgallery.php?carid=31551 Here are a couple for the thread
This is my family car. Found it in a barn from original owner. The old guy was having an estate sale.
I need floors, trunk, fenders (front and Rear), rockers, 1/4 panels, and so much more. I think the only good parts that I have are a hood, trunk, and convertible top frame...so yes....yours would work nicely as a donor! Charles
lol, thats what reproduction panels are for no reason to destroy a perfectly good car to plug up rust holes in a junker Part that convertible and find one in better shape, lol. j/k man, Im sure youll find something to suit your needs.
Here my 64. Im thinkin of doing the 6 window sedan top for the bigger rear window and side window openings. Probably be chopped like 1-2" by the time the new roof's profile looks right. The next thing I wanna do is to put a chunk of steel on the cnc mill for some new tailight housings to weld into the fins so I can french in a tailight. The stock ones are pot metal and dont match the fins well. For the big tailight housings I'm just gonna unbolt them from the center bumper for a start. Im thinking of taking some 3/8 rod and bending it to match the opening and welding it in then french a bucket in like 2" for a tailight. I doubt anybody has a tailight lens that will look right so I might just make a mold for a perfectly shaped lens. Thinking of putting a peak in the center of lens so it has like 1" bulge and lights the frenched bucket nicely. Tossing around the idea of making a 3/8 steel rod grill to replace the stainless pieces above the rear bumper and doing a matching wrap around grill in the front. What ya guys think?
You must be new to owning an early 50's Cadillac. Repro panels? Other than floor boards and rockers, they don't exist. These aren't tri-5 chevy's with catalogs of parts available for them...hence, the need for donor cars. Don't worry, I'll take my eyes off yours for now...
I think you're wasting your time CNC'ing a piece of steel when round rod and sheet metal would get you the same thing. Have you considered late Caddy taillight, the long thin ones...those would be perfect in there and you can mold your tail fins/rear quarter around them with little effort...and still put a "grille" back there to match the front. As for a 2" taillight opening, they need to be larger on that big Caddy, don't try to hide them, there's tooooooo much sheet metal back there to protect... R-
I am new to it, but I know there isnt much out there in terms of reproduction parts, but you can still find parts instead of chopping up a good car.... for example : http://longisland.craigslist.org/pts/1521738341.html Mine actually came with spare doors, bumpers, trim and engine parts, but everything on the car is already in better shape.
This is my 65 from arizona I have had it 3 year put about 10.000 miles a year on it best car I ever had
Im thinking the cnc route as i wanna try and keep a nice point to the tail fin.. gonna be hard to do that in sheetmetal..?? I'll do a photoshop render to show the detail I was thinking of. For instance if you take the factory tailight housing with out the lens and mold that in and sink a lens in an inch and plate in the sides so the tip flows in 1 line to the bottom of the housings corner. I know of the tailight your talking about (88-93 or so) and considering that, my only gripe is that the opening of the body is 3" wide and that light is like 1.5" so it will make my bucket to french in have tapered sides. Dont know how much of a tapered in look I want. Are you saying to french the tailight in more than 2"?? Also tossing around the idea of a 64 6window top so I can get the bigger rear window, side windows and curved upper windshield area look. It would probably set it in about 1-2" lower than stock roofline. What do you think of my general idea StudeDude?
The top would be good...it'd add to the kustom look and confuse the purists... I think you can pull the taillights off with round rod and sheet metal... Have you checked out my build: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the+best+55+caddy+build I built the skirts out of round rod and sheet metal for my Cad...and the side scoops out of the same...it can be done...if you're a decent welder... and you can see your progress right away instead of waiting for the mill to finish...and then making a duplicate... Yep, those are the taillights I'm talking about...you could mold ('french') the taillights in and modify the fins to work with that taillight...sheet metal moves and folds just fine...it just takes a bit of creativity...besides, the taillights already have a bucket built in and you don't have to build one... R-
wow that thing looks great! love the tire/wheel combo on it. how do you know it was a "good car"? I cant believe you would even argue that point.
That's my point exactly How do you know it wasn't good? What's 'good'? That's why the rest of my statement was 'it's a relative term'. Some guys think four doors are great, others see them strictly as parts cars. There's virtually NO aftermarket sheetmetal/trim for these old Caddys, especially if you've got a convertible like Charles or a limited production car with one year only parts - like my Eldorado. I've bought nice cars for what bumper ends for mine cost. One thing I found out quick when I started looking for trim for my '51 Caddy, some of the guys having Caddy's built / restored have DEEP pockets and think nothing of dropping several hundred bucks for a small piece of trim, that's why I bought a 'good' 4 door car and pulled all the trim I needed off of it. So I I can't blame a guy for wanting the best parts he can get for his car, even if someone else thinks he's chopping up a 'good' car for parts -especially when it's a high $$$ car like a convertible. Anyhow, best wishes on your project. I'd love to have another 50-53 myself. Back to cool Cadillac Cruisers, here's another picture of my 51 before I redid it:
Ya I always check out your caddy build, love it... Im definitily gonna do the lower big lights first in round rod for the edge and french a bucket in then I'll see what kinda look will work on the tailights in the fins. The factory chrome big tailight housing dont match the body too well so I might ditch them altogether instead of butchering them. I think the top swap is gonna be the ticket, its my first and foremost thing to do with it for a body mod. I'll get on the rendering of the fin and show you my ideas. Do you have any leads on a 6 window top off a 64?
My Brother's 59 Cad convertible, with my Son taking the keg out of the back seat for our Annual Car Club Christmas Party last week. Also a pic of my business partner's 60 Cad at Cobo Hall for the 08 Detroit Autorama, driven there and back from Colorado
Pics of recently acquired 48 Cadillac/Miller ambulance running a 71 500 V8. I didn't build her but I'm feeding here now.
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